Americans To Stand Trial For Abuse of Russian Adoptee

NEW YORK, January 8 (RIA Novosti) – Two Americans will face trial over their alleged abuse of a Russian adoptee, a Virginia court told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

A District Court in Manassas, Virginia, ruled on Monday there was enough evidence for Matthew and Amy Kathleen Sweeney to stand trial over abusing their Russian foster child, nine-year-old Daniil Kruchin, whom they adopted in 2006.

Kruchin ran away from home last summer to seek aid from a neighbor, who later called police. Authorities found signs of physical beating on Kruchin, who was given the name Daniel Alexander after his adoption, and the boy was transferred into protective custody.

Both parents were arrested last July, but were released on $20,000 bail each.

The news arrives amid a new Russian law that took force on January 1 which prohibits the adoption of Russian children by American families.
The law, named after Dima Yakovlev, a Russian boy who died after his adoption by a US family, has been slammed by critics as a politicized response to a recent US law which levels travel bans and asset freezes on Russian officials suspected of human rights abuse.

Russian officials, however, have complained of abuse and negligence on the behalf of American families who have adopted Russian children, pointing to cases such as Yakovlev and Artyom Savelyev, whose adoptive mother sent him back to Russia on plane by himself in 2010.
Out of about 60,000 Russian children who have been adopted by American families in the past two decades, 19 have died at the hands of their parents.